The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Kalanchoe, botanically known as Kalanchoe blossfeldiana, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Meru Improved’.
The new Kalanchoe is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in De Lier, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program is to create new freely-branching and freely-flowering Kalanchoe cultivars with attractive foliage and flower coloration.
The new Kalanchoe originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in De Lier, The Netherlands in 1997, of the Kalanchoe blossfeldiana cultivar Pablo, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 11,653, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary Kalanchoe blossfeldiana selection, designated as code number FK 3855, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The cultivar Meru Improved was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in De Lier, The Netherlands.
Asexual reproduction of the new Kalanchoe by vegetative terminal cuttings in a controlled environment in De Lier, The Netherlands since August, 1999, has shown that the unique features of this new Kalanchoe are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.